The Blerd Spectrum
The Blerd Spectrum
Red Light, Green Light
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This week the crew puts on their green track suits and grab a mop for the bloodbath as they explore the most recent Netflix hit, Squid Game....or Squid Games if you're melinated.
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Welcome back, everyone, to this week of the Blurred Spectrum Podcast in thematically aligned with all of our spooky episodes. This week, we're going to be talking about Squid Games. I come back again as your host, The Black McCoy. And introducing all of our panelists, of course, will be me. You know, I like to talk about myself just a little bit, but our first panelist. Um, I actually talked to them about a rash I saw last week, and they told me that it would be best to put peanut butter on it. Um, we have the doctor.
SPEAKER_00That is not sound medical advice.
unknownThat's good.
SPEAKER_05Is that legit for real?
SPEAKER_02No, not at all.
SPEAKER_05Don't say things so seriously. I'ma take it serious.
SPEAKER_01You work in the medical field. Well, our next panelists actually crawled up from the depths of hell and just decided to take a bath. We have missed skills.
SPEAKER_05Oh my god, sorry.
SPEAKER_03Wait, wait, what?
SPEAKER_05She always takes baths. Let's just start. I just got it. That came out wrong.
SPEAKER_06It just clicked for me. Hello, everyone.
SPEAKER_01It's okay. It's okay. Well, um, uh, following.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01I've been choosing violence, there's no such thing in my soul. Um, our next panelist, she's actually been born and raised in a very beautiful place, but somehow still managed to find the living hell of centipedes in her living domicile. We have Sione.
SPEAKER_05Hello, everyone. The Black McCoy. This really chose violence today, y'all. It's okay, though. It's all right.
SPEAKER_01And uh for our last two panelists, we have the PTSD couple of the arachnid family of uh shampoo bracelets.
SPEAKER_07There's a war in these streets. These motherfuckers chose to fuck around and fog out.
SPEAKER_01Uh please send them some government cheese. They do need rations, they're very deep in the trenches. Um, so again, Suchino Shogun will not be joining us today, but that's okay. We will we we miss him very fondly. I'm sure he's sitting in the in the ether somewhere, thinking as as if he were a god. Um, so again, today we're going to be talking about Squid Games. So, to start off our conversation today, uh, panelists, what was the pivotal moment in the series for you, starting with Miss Skittles?
SPEAKER_06What do you mean, like pivotal?
SPEAKER_01Like with like what was the moment you was like, oh shit, I'm in this fucking episode one.
SPEAKER_06Like the shit.
SPEAKER_01You're like, nah, we gotta keep going.
SPEAKER_06The shit popped off immediately. Like, it was like wait, like, what's the way? Like, I mean, of course, we start off with, you know, oh boy, and you're like, damn, this this dude shitty as fuck. And then like this, like the nigga gave like uh the shit is crazy, okay? Okay, I don't want to have the I don't y'all know what's going on. Um, but yes, immediately, like, I was hooked from episode one.
SPEAKER_05Um, I mean, and in fact, the black McCoy was um having uh a girls' night Kiki session in the house when we started it, and and even though they fell asleep, I was I was in there uh the whole day you didn't have to put me out there like that, but I'm like you're not sorry. Yo, you stayed me from the snap house.
SPEAKER_06Like you might carve out a nap, like somewhere just who couch, but yes, I I I was I I pretty much binged it that whole night, and then the like the next day, I think I only had like two episodes left to watch, so yeah, I I was I was in there the whole time pivotal, all right.
SPEAKER_01Moving on to the doctor, what was that pivotal moment in in the in the beginning of the series where you knew you were invested in Squid Game?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it had to be episode one for me too. And I think what I really got what I really got into was I liked how they set up um the main character's background with like his struggles with gambling and all that, and it's kind of like a slow build up, like oh, all this financial trouble and whatnot. And you know, I was gonna I was wondering initially, like, okay, so what's this gonna be about? Like, how is it gonna get through this? And you know, where's this gonna go? And then when you hit the red light, green light game, that's where you know, okay, we start this is actually starting to go. Like, I'm glad they put that in episode one because I feel like a lot of series would have pushed something like that further back into episode like oh, three or four, when oh, here's a big twist. Like, no, like put that up front, and I was like, Oh wow, like that's so this is much more you know traumatic and vertical than we expected. Which like, oh, this is what we're doing, okay. Yes, what we're doing, like oh yeah, so no, no, definitely. I think episode one was where I was really like, I'm definitely finishing this series, and then you know, of course, I'm sure we'll talk about episode six, but that was the one we will get there, we will get to a common point.
SPEAKER_01Uh I felt I fell asleep before we got to episode six when I was with Miss Skittles, and I when I saw episode six, I I stopped watching for like a solid day and a half. Like, I just I could not return. I could not champlu Raceless. What about y'all? What moment I'll say what moment in episode one really took the turn for you as far as this series was concerned.
SPEAKER_05So, upon watching this for both of us, um, once we got to the actual red light, green light, it reminded us of uh anime that we have watched. What's the name of it again? Akagi. Akagi. I don't know if y'all have seen that anime. It's like it's like a gambling, he's a gambler, and pretty much he ends up getting in this tournament where at first they're playing a series of you know poker and regular games that you would see in like a uh casino, and then it escalates to these death games, pretty much.
SPEAKER_01Is that something you can do with like super sharp nose? Yes, yes, okay.
SPEAKER_05And I remember I think we were to like the last couple of episodes, and I had to cut it off because he just he was just doing some stupid shit.
SPEAKER_01Um, so you just get on my nerves. I can't do this.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, like like it was it got to a point where the main character would kiss you off, and I'm just like, you know what? Fuck you. I hope you die by the end of the series. Wow, um, yeah, it was it was there.
SPEAKER_03I promise you it wasn't me.
SPEAKER_01Like I'm the peaceful one in this relationship.
SPEAKER_04Oh, that's a whole lie.
SPEAKER_05Um game, I think, you know, red light, green light, and you see all these bugs. I was like, okay, what's going on here? We're gonna have you know, peaceful play.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, I think that's what when I was like, okay, let me let me dive in a little bit more. But I think episode three was it for me. Like that that that kind of took me.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_05What's it the honey phones?
SPEAKER_01What? Oh, when they were looking the thing, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that was the most intense game I have ever seen.
SPEAKER_07I remember I was sitting there watching it, we sit and watch it, and I'm like, yo, the first person that dies is gonna set off a chain reaction. Because everybody fucked up, and it was like it was soon as that person cracked, and all of a sudden pop. Next thing you know, the other people are shaking, and now nobody can use the game anymore. It's like this just gave this went from a cool game to one of the hardest games in your motherfucking life.
SPEAKER_05It was literally that game where like you had to cool your nerves, even though people are dying around you, otherwise you go fuck up. Like, yeah. Episode three was the honeycomb. Yeah, yeah, that was definitely the episode for me. I was sitting there like, ooh, ooh.
SPEAKER_01Okay, well, Sione, what was that moment in episode one for you that really solidified Squid Game as that show you needed to watch and needed to finish?
SPEAKER_05Um, of course, everyone knows about the infamous red light, green light. But for me, it really I was really starting to gain interest in the subway when the guy with the briefcase slapped the fuck out of uh the main character.
SPEAKER_01He was getting slapped so much that when he actually won around, he was ready to slap old dude back. He was like, nah, son, you get money.
SPEAKER_03I don't get he couldn't wait to get it, he was ready, he was ready to be like that's not how the gameplays when the gambler says fuck the money, let me slap the shit out of you.
SPEAKER_05Like I was yeah, that that scene, but really what to add to that, it was because the nigga knew his information. Like, this is somebody I was like, Yeah, this is your date of birth, this is where you live, this is what happened to your business adventures, this happened, this is everything that happened. You a single dad, you struggling, your daughter about to go to America, and I was like, Oh shit, this is this ain't good. Like, you know what I'm saying? So that for me, I was like, Oh, there's something insidious about to happen. I need to figure out what's going on. So it was it was even before the red light, green light, the red light, green light solidified it for me, but that was definitely the turning point when you knew some shit was about to go down and you had that interest to see what is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01So okay, cool. I would say that moment for me didn't come until the end of the first episode. Um, because all of those things that you all name really really like they miss Kittles and I were together and we were watching it. Like that, that was all of the shit that was like pulling together. But like when they subverted my expectations at the end of the episode, because you know they had to vote because everybody was like, hell no, we didn't know who's gonna die. I didn't sign up for this shit. Meanwhile, yes, you did. You signed the whole contract, you just didn't ask any questions. Um and they vote when it came down to voting to leave, and they decided the majority decided to to stop the game. I was like, oh, okay, this is this is this is not what I expected to happen. Like I expected them to keep going and keep playing these games, but I didn't expect this to happen in this way. Like I just kind of thought it was gonna be just linear, like, okay, well, someone's gonna everyone's gonna be greedy enough to want to keep playing, especially after they saw how much money they would be, they would potentially win after all of this was said and done, or went going through this entire thing. And then when that when that last old man, who we will talk about in a second, by the way, when that old man hit the no button uh you know to end the game, I was like, oh shit. So now what? What what does this mean? If the if the Squid Games is over, what's the rest of the show gonna be looking like? Now I'm curious as to what these events that are going to get you know kind of continue happening to make this story unfold a bit more. So that that was the moment I was really invested because I was like, okay, you know, we got we got we got a little bit of you know death game murder porn going on. I'm not I'm not against it, but you know, you know, sometimes it can it can kind of plateau if it's not done in a really interesting way. And I think that was the point that was like really interesting for me. Yeah, yeah. So moving on to the next question, what would you say, what would you all say was the the character that you were most invested in outside of our like our main protagonist? Because you know, we get in we get introduced to like a very ragtag group of individuals throughout this entire you know series. And of course, you know, a lot of them like kind of pop off one by one. So who would you say, I'll I'll say this, who would you say was your your favorite of the of everyone there? Who would you say is the person you hated the most? Like starting with the favorite um shampoo bracelets, who is your favorite?
SPEAKER_04So my favorite was El Loco Chick. That was talking to the double cross me, I'm gonna kill you. That was my bitch.
SPEAKER_05Like, she kept crazy, like, oh my god, yeah, I loved her. I I was hoping she would make it to the end, but once you you saw what happened with her and the dude, and he double crossed her, she had she knew she was gonna keep her word. She was crazy.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that bitch was crazy. That bitch is crazy as fuck.
SPEAKER_05Oh my god. And then I would say my second favorite character was um the chick with the brother where she was trying to fight to get out for her brother. That that was touching. Her story was touching. Yeah, um, my least favorite character would probably be the person that won, which was the main, the main favorite.
SPEAKER_02I love it.
SPEAKER_05It was my it was a couple times I could have smacked him through the screen. But um yeah, but my favorite character, and then after reading how some of the translation was wrong, it made me be like, I wish I could understand it just without having to read the subtitles because we're missing stuff. Um, but you could have watched the dubbed face. Oh, I watched okay, so dubbed and subbed. I know I heard that it was there was a difference. So was the dub the correct version? I don't know. I didn't I we didn't watch the the correct the dub version. I know that someone that it was like a TikTok video that I shared, yeah, that she spoke Korean and she said they were messing up on the translation. Like they made her seem dumber than she really was. She because she was saying some really intelligent stuff. Like the when the girl with the the girl who had the sister? I mean, crazy chick, the crazy chick. Oh like when they were picking teams, she when she was like, you know, I'm very smart, but she actually said, I'm very smart, I just didn't have time to study. Like it was more to her story, apparently, and we missed it because of the translation. So I'm gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01I think that's one of the largest critiques I've heard that you know when it came to the translation specifically, um, which we can talk about more later, that you know, it really under uh undermined a lot of the cultural context that came along with the story, but um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh, you did you have a favorite?
SPEAKER_07Um I the closest of my favorite, honestly, was Indian dude until the very end. Uh I actually really liked him, his character. I loved him too. I love him. I just he just got fucked. He was just that was all it was. He was just too sharp. So so and he killed it for me, but I love the old man though. The old man was the fucking beast the whole way through. Love that motherfucker. That old man let this motherfucker believe that he really had all times and forgot what the fuck was going on, only turn around and be like, So it was cool for you to fuck me over for like the past 30 minutes. Right, like you can't know that's not how this works. That's not how this works. So, nah, that was I actually enjoyed that. That was good. I enjoyed the old man. If if it wasn't the Indian dude, he just he was just too trusted. That's just how he was too pure, pretty much.
SPEAKER_01The doctor, who was your favorite? Who did you hate the most?
SPEAKER_00All right, so my favorite definitely had to be Ali. Um, yeah, like he was just really kind-hearted, really sweet. And it's of course, that's also his biggest weakness in the games, too. Because he, you know, try, you know, he put way too much trust in uh uh the dude who um I forget his name.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Songwu? Fucking oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, about that, so yeah, um, that's my reset character, too. So um, you know, I think what really irritated me about him, and you know, on one hand, I feel like he was playing the game to play the game. You know, he was one of the few who really uh immediately was like, okay, this is how I'm supposed to win, and he was ruthless about it. And that's how you know Songw got as far as he did. But like just the uh the growing and more obvious backstabbing just became really, really irritating after a while. Um, you know, and I don't know, I guess I Ojin, like I felt like he was more it kind of became his whole character after a certain point, you know. And that's what I really didn't like. Uh I didn't care for the other dude. Um the dude who oh, what is this? What is his name? Um uh Duck Sue, I think. Oh, the gangster. Yeah, the gangster who was like a bunch of people. Yeah, like I kind of liked him, but he just got uh he got irritating too. And like it's I was really happy to see him die. You know, I was so glad old girl killed him at the end. It's like, oh, he's just such a dick. It's you know, it was just a lot, but yeah. No, Ali was my favorite though.
SPEAKER_01Same, same, same. All right, Sayone, who was your who who grabbed your heart and who did you say, you know what fucked this danger?
SPEAKER_05I of course the the the um the Indian character, I believe it was Indian.
SPEAKER_01He portrayed his he was Pakistani?
SPEAKER_05Was he Pak Pakistani?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he was Pakistani.
SPEAKER_05Okay from Pakistan.
SPEAKER_01Because I thought it was really weird for a Pakistani person specifically to be in this Korean game or in like Korean place.
SPEAKER_05Okay, yes, you he was definitely because he saved in in episode one, he saved that nigga and he napped you. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, he was missing a finger.
SPEAKER_05Like that's that's that's the shit for me. Like he he saved everybody, it was kind of it reminded me of Saul in a way. I think Moskittles talked about Saul last last well, the the previous episode on how a lot of people that are in this game are kind of fucked up. He was the only that was like pure, you know what I'm saying? And he was just there to just you know get get money, funds for his family. That was it. That was it. He didn't backstab, he didn't squander money, he just wanted to have money for his family so they could live a better life. That was it, and he saved that nigga in the first episode. And I'm like, none of y'all hoes deserve him. Not one, not one of y'all hoes deserve him. So, um, but my second I I would have to, of course, he's the favorite, but I really like the police guy that tried to uncover shit. Like, I was he when he bit that nigga's dick, what did he do? Whatever he did in the end, no, he didn't punch it. What did you do?
SPEAKER_01He punched him in the dick, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Oh, something involved the penis, but whatever the hell he did, it said for me. Like that was like I said, yes, I live. He's like, Yeah, you know, let's go in the back. He said, Yeah, nigga, let's go in the back. Yeah, let's go on that back. And he came out screaming, I said, This this one for me, I loved him because he really he had to really immerse himself in this game to try to find his brother, like you know what I'm saying? And his and his brother ain't shit because he did all of that for his brother. So I really, I really loved him. He was one of my favorite characters for sure.
SPEAKER_01Okay, awesome. Miss Skittles. Who'd you love? Who'd you hate?
SPEAKER_06So the the the police officer was also my favorite character. Not not only was like like uh Syane said, he was in there like trying to figure this, like the only person really trying to figure this shit out, honestly.
SPEAKER_05Uh and um, you know, he did it for his brother, and um and and and he's just fine.
SPEAKER_06He was fine, fine as fuck. But yeah, his little fine ass. But anyways, yes, so I appreciated his character. Um, so um least favorite. Ooh, it's a toss-up, it's a toss-up be between um some woo. Cause that when I knew that nigga was fucked up. I from from the moment episode three started, I said this nigga is a bit no kinds of shit at all. Like, uh, it just irritated my soul. Like trash, like he was smart as fuck, but he was trash as fuck, like super trash nigga. And I'm just like, oh, I hate this dude. But I also hated the the gangster nigga, Dung Wu, uh, what's his name? Yeah, that I can understand that nigga. Like, I was like, yo, I if this one nigga that need to die, it it gotta be this this man. He was like the ultimate, the ultimate, just why are you here still?
SPEAKER_01Like, like and you know what the wild part is at a certain point, I was trying to root for him after what happened on the bridge when his when he like went back and his like old homeboy.
SPEAKER_06No, fuck that nigga.
SPEAKER_01I tried to for a second, I was like, okay.
SPEAKER_06Because apparently he was fucking up out there too, doing some wild shit. Like, how you how you how you fuck your own crew over out in the outside world? You're supposed to be a gap.
SPEAKER_05You don't know y'all got your own set of rules, so you should have known me he was coming, dumbass.
SPEAKER_06Yep. Nah, nah, I couldn't see. Him. So it's it's him and Sung Wu like they on the they on the same plane for me. Fuck both of them.
SPEAKER_01So of course Sung Wu was like my least favorite. Fuck him entirely. Like fuck like fuck him with a rusty baseball bat with like a thousand nails piercing through the like what multiple times until he wakes back up and has to go through it all over again.
SPEAKER_06Um they're gonna take us off the internet for that.
SPEAKER_01But um no, uh the Pakistani guy, of course, like he's he's like top tier just because he was the purest thing there. And I I want to say he he not only was the purest thing there, but he was the darkest thing there, which was also really affirming in some way, shape, or form that the darkest skinned person there was like the purest and most kind-hearted, but at the same time in the minority, as well as you know, the what being the kinder person of the everyone be and also like losing because of that kindness. And it was like it's it and the annoying part was like it so this entire show has been like a weird, like kind of of course, you know, socioeconomic allegory that's been like put in front of us, and like that moment between like him and Sung Wu in that game in episode six was just a perfect representation of him being just being of a lower status because he didn't have the education that Song Wu had, he didn't have the access to the things Sung Wu had, and he was still winning this little Marvel game that they was going through. And the and like Sung Wu being the shy educated business person that he was and using the shisty practices that got him to where he was in the got him to being in the squid games in the first place, was literally how he won and took advantage of this person and got them killed because of it. And uh, I was like, if that ain't if that ain't America and white people, sorry, uh but nonetheless, uh I I think he's like a default fave just because of the person that he is. But after that, um old girl who had the the little brother, she became my favorite. I remember Miss Skittles and I watching that moment when she went to the dude who was supposed to be like helping um get their parents um to South Korea from North Korea, and he she she realized or she knew he was fucking around with her, and she beat his ass and almost slit his throat and threatened him and not only threatened his ass, but robbed him and took his shit out of his pocket. And he didn't even know until she was gone. I was like, that's bad bitch shit right there. I'm gonna threaten your life, take your shit and tell you you better get me my you better get my. So let's see. So now that we kind of have we've already started talking about it, how did everybody feel about episode six? So for those of you listening, episode six was spoiler alert for those who haven't seen it.
SPEAKER_03Hold on, spoiler alert.
SPEAKER_04I mean, if you if you listen to this episode, I mean, come on now, but like you know what I'm saying, just in case, just in case, because somebody might be like, let me cut it off right here. So just spoiler alert, right?
SPEAKER_01So just the tot, just not even just the pivotal moment that we all was just like nigga, but like the whole way episode six was set up. How did you all feel about that? Because when I was looking at after like the first um few minutes, and it was like, okay, they have to pair up, and then you find out what has to happen. I was like, oh shit, y'all, y'all got caught up because you thought you was being strategic. And it's like, nah, nigga, this is this this ain't it. How did y'all feel about that one? Starting with Miss Skittles.
SPEAKER_06So uh immediately, immediately I was like, damn. Like when when I realized it was like, you know, like this is the person you you're it that was well, it's over for one of y'all. I was like, yo, like this is like it's it's super fucked up.
SPEAKER_05One, because these these people who have made it this far have, you know, have built some type of relationship with each other. And now this is ultimately the person that you're gonna knock out of this game.
SPEAKER_06And it's not gonna be like, oh, you know, I'll see you later after the game. No, bitch, they gonna die. So this is this is somebody you bonded with. Um, not only it, I mean, just just the main, you know, protagonist that we we followed um throughout the game, but um these these group of individuals all happen to pair up with each other, and now we're going to lose half of them. So um, so for not only for them was it fucked up, but it's is fucked up for the viewer if you if you you know you have gained some type of emotional like relationship with these these characters that you've been watching um throughout this series and you've been rooting for.
SPEAKER_05So um so yeah, I mean, of course, um of course everybody, I think everybody was was hurt by um Ali and and Sun Wu's game because it it just it just it was just like the most fucked up thing that you could do.
SPEAKER_06But I'm I wasn't surprised because it was Sun Wu, but at the same time, it was just like I already know who's not gonna make it out of this, specifically because of the things that you had mentioned earlier, um Black McCoy, as far as the the education and the the cunning, the you know, the the skill or the manipulation that Ali did not have. He just he just was too pure-hearted, you know, too much of a good person to think, one, that someone would do this to him, and two, I mean, just the game, the game itself was just fucked up. Um, I did um I did feel some type of way um with um I I want to say her name, but I know I'm gonna fuck it up. So the girl, the girl with the brother, and and her and her new friend, like this literally somebody that she just connected with, and and she's uh she already said she like she don't open up to people, she don't you know have any friends. So this is somebody she just recently newly connected with and felt some type of way for, and then like and and she threw the game for her. Like it just it was just like it was the most touching thing to me that had happened in the series uh alone.
SPEAKER_05Um, so I I was just like, wow, like you literally just met this person last game because she, you know, just randomly picked you. So um, yeah, I I felt I did feel and y'all know I'm like a heartless bitch, so I did feel I did feel some type of way when that happened because I was just like, wow, like she literally threw the game for her because she felt like she she had something better on the outside to look forward to.
SPEAKER_06So uh yeah, and and don't even get me started on uh what's the main character's name again? Guian, yeah, Gian and the old man, bruh. Gion tried, he tried the one he figured. I don't even know. I don't I don't know how to feel about it. Like part of me is like, oh, you did what you had to do, but the other part of me was like, you fucked up trash for this. And then on top of that, and then on top of that, your boy was like, This is what you do to a friend. So not only did you know you was doing something up, and then you try to sneak your way through it because you thought your man's was really like just lost his mind in those moments. But at the end, now you now you really feel bad because you know your boy was playing you the whole time, like, oh, so this what you do to your friend. Oh now you really feel bad, don't you? Super bad, but yeah, so the episode six, it was a lot, it was a lot to take in. Um, definitely, I mean the whole thing was a lot to take in, but episode six, you know, that that go back to like when you when you start thinking, like playing with your your morals and ethics, like, oh my god, what would I have done? So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Shampoo bracelets.
SPEAKER_05So it was it was another team that was in there that of course you didn't really see them too often. The husband and wife that was there and how he ended up beating his wife, but then couldn't deal with the guilt because he killed her.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um, so we were talking, and I was like, I don't think we would have teamed up just because of the way the game was moving, where you know, you just don't know what the fuck's going on. Out of safety purposes, we probably just would have showed you know some random people, hopefully. Or or if you're lucky, you would have ended up like what's her name again?
SPEAKER_01Which one?
SPEAKER_05The girl that that was sleeping in the van where everybody was dying.
SPEAKER_01Oh fuck, what was her name? I I hated that bitch, but I know who you're talking about.
SPEAKER_05Why did you hate her?
SPEAKER_01Uh she got on my nerves. She got on my nerves the whole time. I think it was Mino.
SPEAKER_05Mino, okay. Yeah, if you if you were lucky, you would have ended up like her just without a partner. Um, another one that got me was the one y'all also talked about, the Indian, the Pakistanian guy. Um midway, like before the game even started, after they announced what they were doing, I said he's gonna die because he was just too naive, and that guy was too smart in a way. I like I knew he was gonna get fucked somehow or the other.
SPEAKER_07He was in this because he got fucked.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_05I'm like, I even felt bad for that. I was like, you're the only one that's here, not because you gambled your money away, but because your shitty ass boss wouldn't pay you and he's walking around with a pocket full of cash.
SPEAKER_01Can we talk about how he got his boss got hit? He was probably boss with that money and got his own.
SPEAKER_05And I was like, that's what you get because you over here being greedy, so your hand should have got destroyed. Maybe it'll stop being less greedy. You haven't paid your workers in two months. You lucky they still working because I'd have said, fuck you already. That's too long.
SPEAKER_07You lucky able to walk in and walk out. That's what you're really lucky about. You lucky his legs still work.
SPEAKER_03Like, nigga, you ain't getting no PPP loan, like nothing else.
SPEAKER_05Um, and then I think the one that really got my heart I was about to tear up was the two girls, because I was just like, oh my god, y'all just about to tear up over something.
SPEAKER_06That was so sad.
SPEAKER_01We got both of us both of our like I'm hard ass bitches on the on the podcast. I said about to.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, okay, I was like about to. And then when she was like, Oh, we gonna get mojitos when we get out of here. Then she was like, not put mojito.
SPEAKER_04Like you could put a being outside of here, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_05Like, she sacrificed her whole self so you can save your son and then only for her to put a fucking glass instead of her.
SPEAKER_04I was I was over here like I was like, if anybody, not saying the main character, I don't know, he had a traumatic experience. So I was waiting between him and the girl that should have won it. Like a part of me really feels like she should have won because I just felt like she had a greater purpose behind it. I get it, he had a traumatic incident, but that traumatic incident didn't mean that you had to gamble everything away, including your mother's money.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01The doctor. Oh, I'm sorry. What are you gonna say?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I'm just I'm just I'm just uh he's a man chest to pause.
SPEAKER_03Don't talk about my life.
SPEAKER_07Um, no, yeah, I would say like I said, the old man moment for one, really the moment I um that that I noticed the most and that I liked most about this whole thing, there was nothing in this that I thought was like incredibly depressing. But the moment that I love was when um the character I can't remember his name, the one that was the that killed the guy in the middle of the uh of the bunker. We've been talking about him, he was fucking with old crazy girl. Oh Doug Sue. Douglas, yeah. When Douglas had his epic comeback against his boy that talked so much shit. I love when people talk shit and luck just turns around on me. That nigga was in there talking like, oh, you might be young. He's talking bat cat shit.
SPEAKER_01And all he's like, nigga, I only called you, don't don't let don't let the fact that I called you boss because I was standing around you get get you a little gassed up.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, he talked bad shit, and then all of a sudden that game turned around. I love that shit, but the old, always old man, I like the old man and uh fucking and um the main character. That was that was wild because for one, I I used to, my great grandmother had all times. So watching that, it was almost like it was almost like reminiscing off some shit. Where it was like, yo, yeah, memory does fade like that. But it was he just kept doing fuck shit the whole time looking at Dominique, like, yo, I don't think there's anything wrong with this dude. Like wrong with this guy. Because he just kept doing like this random ass fuck shit, like, oh, I can't find my last marble out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_03Like, you don't get these fucking with you. Like, like you can't be this dumb.
SPEAKER_04Like no, I mean, in all honesty, the main character was borderline just as naive as Ali.
SPEAKER_05But I understood Ali's reasoning for being naive. He's in a different country that's not his own. So he's adjusting to probably their customs.
SPEAKER_04But the main character though, bro.
SPEAKER_01I I wanna I want to defend him a little bit in that regard, only because like the relationship he had with this older man was like kind of, in my opinion, like uh a reprieve from the relationship that he had with his mom. Because he was there because he was trying to get money to, you know, have so his mom can have the operations so she can survive. And but and you know, this old man is here for a similar allegedly for a similar reason. Um and he just you know was able to develop a relationship with it. It was like the only person he was able to talk to and you know, really be honest and authentic with and develop a relationship with. And you know, in like the second episode when you see they meet up in the outside world or whatever, like and they're able to sit down and spend more time together, it was like he it was like he bought more, he bought more into the lie. So even if it was very clear that he was fucking with them, like when you're when you're that entrenched in the in some the truth that someone is giving you, and even if they are fucking with you and you're like trying to like uh you're you're understanding it only through the lies that they told you, and so like by the time you actually learn the truth, it's like, well, fuck, it's too late now.
SPEAKER_04But it wasn't even just with him with the old man, like y'all remember after the honeycomb game, right? You clearly saw that old boy had an idea of what the game was, okay? So then he looks at his boy and was like, I'm sorry, and then he was like, It's good, it's good, but he he still didn't realize that old boy knew what the fuck was going on.
SPEAKER_01And I want to say it because I was like, Oh, that's my childhood friend. I was like, Okay, just because you know somebody, you've known them for a long time, don't dean, they ain't they ain't the fucking thing. Like, don't you do not let friendship trip you up like that, especially if you ain't seen this person in like forever.
SPEAKER_05Like we're grown up, we got kids, we we doing you know, adulting.
SPEAKER_04That doesn't mean I'm the same person I was with as a child. God, I hope not. Um, but so it's just like you still didn't realize that he was fucking you, like so. That's what like it's not just the old man, and that old man seemed shifty the whole time. Let's go mark up this old man, he's shifty, he shifty, shifty, exciting.
SPEAKER_06It was it was he was doing too much.
SPEAKER_04And then he wasn't trying to get a surgery. Remember, he was like the doctor told me I have a lump in my head, so I'm just trying to ride it out.
SPEAKER_06Like he wasn't even getting there to get a surgery, he was just trying to have fun, he lived to live his best life.
SPEAKER_03Right, he was doing that for fucks, like he knew he wasn't gonna die anyway.
SPEAKER_01The doctor, what about you? How do you feel about episode six overall?
SPEAKER_00I mean, yeah, it's like everyone said, it was gut-wrenching, just super emotional. Um, I think one of the most heartbreaking parts of it was up to that point, um, you know, with um the main character of Gihan, but he had really been trying to be like, oh, you know, I'm trying to be as honorable as I can, as nice I can, you know, we're all working together. And that's the game that just completely threw that for loop. Like, no, you know, you're gonna have to kill this man and not just kill him, but we got to see this is the first game where he was really like deceptive and manipulative. Like, well, it's like, oh yeah, did I win like what was it? He said, Oh, what did you say he got? He like changed his hands a lot, and we said, Oh, okay, so you're not above this either. And I think like with the progression of the different games, um, they get increasingly less fair and more fucked up in a different way. Where the honeycomb game, like the first game, like, of course, murder, like it's fucked up for that, but it's otherwise a game where everyone actually has a fair chance doing it. The second game with the honeycomb, if you make the water, you're fucked. That's just what it was. There was no indication, like you just lost, you know. And then the tongue of war was the first game where they had to kill someone else, you know, because you knew like half of you are going to die. And this was a game that where they introduced no, the people who you care about in these nonsense, they're going to break. Like that was the whole thing. And it was, and it was just losing so many people at once, you know, between like Ali, you know, and uh at the time we thought uh Il Nam, you know, um you know, spoilers that of course changed later, but um just so much loss at once, and just everyone, you know, all these people being broken down. And then, you know, we talk about Song Wu being, you know, his manipulative Ali, which I mean, that was definitely like the twist in the in the gut for me, or the twist of the knife. But it was really just an extension of what he's been gradually doing more and more throughout the games. Yeah, even in the very first game, you know, when um Gong was thinking about like going back to help someone, Song Wu is like that no, you need to move, or like that, you don't have much time, like you have to go. So we're seeing hints of this, like even from the beginning. And then, of course, the honeycomb game where yeah, like he clearly knew what the game was or how it worked, and was like, oh no, I'm just not going to tell them.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Like, it was already fucked up. Like, yeah, this was this was the one that really just everyone showed their ass pretty much.
SPEAKER_01Everyone showed the darkest parts of their ass, didn't they?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, it's that's what it was. Yeah, I hope we're taking the break after that one.
SPEAKER_01I think you point out something like really, but that I didn't particularly notice. Like, I noticed the games got more and more fucked up, but like they got more like interpersonal after the the um, you know, the where they pick the shapes. Because it's like, you know, you go from having to be team oriented and you know, really fighting for your life on a team. Um and Then, you know, having to sacrifice another team's life so you can save your own. But then on top of that, you move to this next game in episode six, is where you still you're under this um impression that you know you're still working with this team dynamic because they tell you to pair up with someone and say, okay, I can pick someone that I care about and care that I trust to be on this team with. And then you move forward and you find out that, oh shit, like now I'm pitted against this person. Like Miss Gills was saying earlier. It's like you do you now, because it's like it's like it's an intentional manipulation of the relationships that they developed up until that point. Because like they're not just trying to win, they're also trying to survive. And regardless of how whose survival is, you know, going to you know be most important at the end, there's still this kind of need to depend on one another, and it's like they continue to mess with that as the games can as the games went forward.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you know, in that progression, uh the bridge game is probably the one that has all the most fucked up combinations of that. Oh, yeah. It's super random, depending on which one you got, you know, and it's and basically it's telling you to push people, yeah. Like this is something it requires you to do, you know, and then culminating with, of course, the last game, which is just murder.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's all it is.
SPEAKER_01What about you? What are you what are your overall feelings on episode six from start to finish?
SPEAKER_05I was confused. I I remember watching the episode. Um, I think maybe because I was kind of going in out of sleep, but I was confused about the fucking marbles. But I knew that shit went off when um the uh Ali was paired up with the ain't shit nigga. That's when I was like, Yeah, this ain't gonna this ain't gonna fly. Because of all the crew, everybody in there, he was the nigga you don't want to be paired up with. You know that he was cutthroat, he was all about I'm just trying to win. And I mean, if he fucked over his childhood friend, of course he's gonna fuck over a stranger.
SPEAKER_01So I his mom too.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. It was um, I I didn't know what the I forgot what the the smart nigga I mean, not I don't like to call him that the businessman.
SPEAKER_01Songwu. I'm sorry, his name was Songwu.
SPEAKER_05Song Wu, yes. I don't know what his intentions were because he really didn't care about his mom either until the very end. He was like, you know, he told the main character, you know, make sure you take care of my mom or something like that. But no one really knew what his intentions were. So I just assumed it was out of pure greed because he got into some serious white collar crime. Um he just wanna go, he didn't want to go to jail. That's kind of what I yeah, he got he touched some tor corporation type of money, embezzlement, I believe. I can't remember. But um, so when I when I knew I it was for me, it was like, oh, this really is Game of Thrones. Like that was the episode of like, oh, don't love your favorite character now, they will fucking die. I'm like, oh we're watching Game of Thrones. Okay, I'm cool now. So once I understood that once I thankfully, Game of Thrones has has uh molded me to not care about the one that you love and in a show.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay, in a show, I was like in a show, that's gonna say a lot for a relationship on a TV show. I was like, well, excuse the fuck out of me. No, oh show, show.
SPEAKER_05Um, so that was definitely I was like, okay, we're watching, I think that was the the change of the show, so to speak. It was from childhood games that yeah, somebody gonna die, but you don't gotta die. This was like, no, you're all dying. I'm like, oh, okay. That was kind of like that set the the tone of no one is really supposed to survive this but one person. Um, you know, even if you even if let's say the crew together had worked together, I I feel like because the the game was orchestrated so that it was really survival of the fittest and only one person was going to be the fittest, they probably would have pinned everybody against each other at the very end to kill everybody off. Like I really feel that way because they're already trying to change the game anyway, because I think they didn't think it was supposed to be that many people in the last episode. Like the girl would have gone to the finale. I think they only thought it was gonna be two people, you know. I'm saying, so they're probably already thinking, how the fuck are we gonna make it so that only one nigga wins? So it wasn't meant for a team. It never was. Um, and I was I was not saying okay with that, but with that now like thinking about it, I I wasn't so like gonna cry because I'm like, okay, this is just how the game was. And it reminded me of other games, like Would You Rather? And I and I and I keep like um referencing that movie because I feel like if I didn't watch that movie, I would have been a lot more in my feelings with Squid Game, but um I wasn't because the ending of Would You Rather, it was an American movie, I think it was in the early 2010s, and it was the same thing about the same thing about Squid Game, but in a movie, and that was it. And only one person survived. And a person that survived, it wasn't a happy ending, you know what I'm saying? So I was like, Oh, okay, so I'm okay. I'm okay with not him dying, but it it sucked. It sucked. Um, but I thought it was interesting. I like I like movies or shows where you don't know what the hell is gonna happen, and so for me, I love that the person that we all love died in a very strange way. Yeah, because yeah, it's more real. I think that's why people were hit hard with it. It's more real, like just because the good person doesn't usually survive. Um, we have the we have the saying, Jamaicans have this saying that like the wicked, the wicked always live forever and the good always dies first. And that is it kind of reminded me of that saying, like, good people never survive long. In in that's that's kind of how we think about it. People that we that passed away, they're people that we really held near and dear to our hearts, they're very good people, and the people that always survive on this fucking earth are evil ass people, and because they know how to shit on top of others to remain there. So it's just reminded me of that. So this is very interesting.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So one of the things that uh so I think the thing that stood out to me the most in episode six was the the girl who sacrificed herself for um, I think her name was Sayak. I don't I I don't have Korean pronunciations right. That's why I didn't but you know the the character who had the little brother. But like I think it was interesting for me because it was it was it was like she she know she recognized that she, when she thought about the money, she had no idea what she would do with it. Like she would have she had no plans as to what she would do if she won. And so it was interesting because it brought up a lot of questions for as to like, you know, why she was even there in the first place. I mean, you know, she was there for the same reason other people were there, but it was almost as like she had no value for her own life, or she didn't have anything to live for genuinely, and that's partly why she had gotten so far in the games and partly why she literally didn't care to give up her life or was, or not didn't care per se, but like was more invested in giving up her life for the cause of something that was, you know, very genuine and had something that was meaningful tied behind it. Because it was like, what because I think that that was the moment when they were having that conversation, like, oh, what would you do with the money? She was like, Well, you know, I would do this with my family and help my brother, blah, blah, blah, do all do all these things. And it's like, damn, I wouldn't. I I still don't know. I still don't have no idea what I would do. And it was like, I thought it was it was philosophically interesting for me because it was like she just knew that afterwards she would just continue meandering a lot about her own existence in this way that didn't really affect her or have any real meaning to her. Like she would just go about her day-to-day life and not care about whether she lived or died. And so this was like a moment for her to, at bare minimum, sacrifice her life for something that was actually good and worthwhile. So I think that was the that was the aside from Sung Wu being a fuck nigga, um, that was the moment for me that was like really, really pivotal. Um, because you know, Gi Hun, uh, I have my own feelings about Gee Hun. I thought if you were just like a better father, then you wouldn't be here. But but like that that that that is this whole story arc for me. Like, if you were a better father, if you would have done what you're supposed to do, if you wasn't gambling away your child's money and money for your family, then you would not be in this situation. But um, but no, like that that that her her her character death was it wasn't like super emotional for me, but it was the it was, I would definitely say it is the one that had the biggest impact. Um, well, second biggest impact next to Ali because of just what her death meant to her at the end of it all. Because like because her life didn't mean anything to her overall, she found someone for she found someone where her life could mean some mean something not just to her, but to someone else. So I thought that was amazing. So before we kind of like get towards just kind of the the last, you know, three climax, you know, episodes of the series. Um, how did you all feel about this like overall subplot for this police officer like investigating um his brother, his brother's disappearance? So that like, I mean, it was interesting the way they introduced it, um, because the police officer, you know, just um Gihon went to the police station to report everything that was happening because he realized, like, oh, you know, this shit is happening, people are dying, the police need to do something. And the detective, you know, gets gets win of this and starts investigating because his brother's also missing, so he's wondering, you know, he's wondering if this is a similar situation. And so the deep dive that he does and the the the like complete covert operation that he pulls by himself with no with no say-so from anyone higher up is one of the more interesting parts because I think it was interesting largely up front, because like everyone who was there, they basically went missing for days and no one knew where they were. And for a detective who literally has to report to work every day and no one can find him, that creates a whole new level of like security risk and security.
SPEAKER_05Like, okay, now that you said that, I'm just wondering. Like, I get it, they burned the bodies as as you know they died. But uh, is anybody wondering about these missing reports?
SPEAKER_04Like, there should be like walls and walls of missing people once you saw how far back the game went. So, who they paying off to just say, Oh, we're not looking wrong.
SPEAKER_05I'm just saying, but they got they specifically got people that no one would care about, and that's what it was. Like, I feel like because they're in such debt, they knew that they would either disappear or do some shyy shit. So they were not like people that would be missed, so to speak. And I think that's kind of the premise of the game. Like, no one really is really is gonna miss you. Like, look at the main character, they assume that the father is a deadbeat and wouldn't do anything with his life and have no communication with his daughter. Um, the you know, and even the mother, the mother assumed the mother of like the the ancient nigga of the business guy, assumed that her son was on a business trip and he goes on a business trip for a long, long time. And so all these people, the families already didn't expect to see their those people at all, or not for a long time. And that's why there wasn't a big fuss, so to speak, only until the police guy's brother went missing. But then again, that's somebody that's connected to the police. That's when he's like, No, I'm checking this shit out, but no one else is looking for them, yeah, not enough to make a big fuss. And so I think that's kind of like the game they're going to collect the undesirables because even think about even like in in today, you know, when people go missing, people are missing all the time. Yeah, I go across my news feed, across my Twitter feed, Instagram, there's always like this person's missing, like little little black children go missing all the time, people of color go missing all the time. But who the fuck shows interest on TV? And it's not us. So, you know, I'm saying, and don't and that's what I'm saying. They're not people that are considered important enough to find, and that's why nobody really cared. Or if they did care, it was a cold case, and there's no trail.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think I think Sungwoo was the only person that was like being looked for, looked for, and that's because he was he was fucking he was wanted for like his crime.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Look how they burn the bodies. Even if you try to find a trail, it's a cold case. There's no body to find.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05You're on an off-site, you're on an undisclosed location. Only niggas that know about it are these multimillionaires or billionaires. The security is tight and they got dirt on everybody, so no one is gonna fucking know anything. So it's it's a perfect cover-up.
SPEAKER_07To add to that, um, one thing I did notice is that the one common thing it seems like amongst a lot of people is the need for money.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_07And um, and I say I'm thinking back, like I said, Akagi kind of set this tone as well. Whereas like the idea was that the reason why they would for a lot of people that had great debts is because when you have a debt that great, most likely you don't have anybody around to help you, which means if you don't have anybody around to help you, you also don't have anybody that'll look for you, or that would be important enough to be a problem, even if they do. Like, perfect example. Yeah, the business dude can keep can go missing for a long time, but it does he is his mother really gonna go out there and look for him?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because it's all as long as all she had, all she knew was like he had gone off to school and then he was like out of the country on business always. Oh, my successful son is you know, he he's he's working and he's being successful.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, right. So and that's and I think that's also because in a in the long run, so yeah, he worked his way to be successful, but I know uh another thing that that came with that, which was um an idea of abandonment with him, right? Like he had literally abandoned because of her still being in, so to speak, the slums, but still doing what she was doing. He looked at it as I don't necessarily interact with you on a regular basis because I look at you as where I don't want to be anymore. And this is and I'm trying to move forward. So, to an extent, the reason and her loving her son has accepted it more as instead of accepting it as abandonment, he's accepted it as, oh, he's just out there being successful. He's doing him, he'll be back when he, you know, when he's done. So him passing away is is not like you said, he she's not gonna think, oh, you know, he's he's gone. We need to look for him. She's gonna think he's all being successful somewhere, and it's gonna take a really long time, but it takes a couple weeks or you know, a decade. So it's kind of weird, but yeah, it seemed like they everybody they went for was people that were just even if they were desirable, they were desirable by people that didn't need shit.
SPEAKER_05So you know, Mark, I think that um the mother knew that the some the son was gone when the main character dropped off that case of money.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I think that was that. Yeah, but that was the moment that was the moment when she realized it though. That was the only and that was because of that particular moment. Right, yeah, but um, but outside of that, I don't think she would have ever thought if like if the main character hadn't done that, she wouldn't have thought, oh yeah, you know, my son has come back. She would have just been like, Oh, he's out doing successful shit, he's on the yacht, cocaine strippers, who knows? So, like, it's like he's not coming back.
SPEAKER_01So he's just a squid game, not crazy rich agents, okay.
SPEAKER_05So it's interesting I'm sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead, go ahead. Um, it was just interesting. I'm just thinking more about the uh the ain't shit nigga. He's a very interesting character. Of course, we love to hate him, but he's very interesting in the sense that culturally, you know, uh Asians hold education, you know, very high standard, and also, you know, especially, you know, foreign foreign parents hold education to an incredibly insane high standard and also success. And it's kind of like, and it just reminds me of this, you know, the suicide rate, especially in Japan and Korea, on how much pressure it is when it comes to if you're not a certain way, then you are a failure. Um, and it just it's just very interesting because you know, the mother was in the slums, the son is off, you know, in her mind doing successful things. But with that success, he was a failure, even with the alkaline, so to speak. Oh, he's a businessman, he graduated school. But it's just very interesting. It kind of makes you think just because you went to school, just because you have a lot of money, just because you are in this white collar type of thing, doesn't mean that you're successful. You can be a failure just on the type of person you are. And it was just very interesting because he did all of this, that what she wants, what parents sometimes even our parents want us to do, and we get it, it doesn't mean that we're actually happy and a success in our lives, so to speak. And it just put him on a on a very harmful and in a terrible path to being a villain. And you know, and it is just interesting because there's a lot of concepts, there's a lot of unpacking with that. And I thought it was hilarious when in the beginning, when the mom she was talking to like a customer, she's like, Oh, you know, yeah, yeah. She's like, you know, my daughter, is he single? He's like, Oh well, my God.
SPEAKER_01You must have the wrong song. That's not that's not my song move.
SPEAKER_05It was but the lady was like, Oh yeah, and and that's why it was it was just interesting. Like, my son has all of that. He's just too good. I'm like, bitch, your son getting caught up with the pool.
SPEAKER_01Sion, you you said something really important that like um in the earlier in this, like when they when they quit the game, and before you know, in between the the first and you know, second episode before they went back, we saw him in like a in like a room or a hotel room or something, and like he looked like he was about to commit suicide in the bathtub.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he was. I feel like he was until that knock on the door.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's it's of course we can say we hate him, but you have to dig deeper into his kids.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_05Um, you know, and and not. Of course, but that's just very real. Like, like I used to tell Mark all the time growing up, I felt like I grew up on a pedestal. Like I was always put up against my cousin that was the same age as me. So anytime I did something that they felt was out of line, it was almost like I felt regressed. So I get that pressure, like like I understood his story. He still ain't shit, but I understand it. Yeah, it's um it's interesting. It just kind of shows you where that ideology can turn very dark. Um, so I liked his character because it was very real. I loved the squid game because it was very real. All this shit, this game, it probably is happening now.
SPEAKER_01Don't say that to be all it takes is one bat, all it takes is one bat, one big piece of debt.
SPEAKER_03Don't get it, don't get it.
SPEAKER_01I mean, you can't play the little slab game with too many black people because you will, you know, find yourself in the little slab.
SPEAKER_00Like Squid Game, you know, and it's portrayed as this really fantastical setting and whatnot, as far as this, you know, murder game, but it really is just like capitalism and poverty in a different form, yeah. In a more extreme presentation. But yeah, like in a lot of ways, Squid Games do kind of happen now. If you know you get into debt and then you have to do really unsavory things to try and get out of debt, but even those fail. Like, that's more debt, yeah. Exactly, you know.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, a lot of different like stories and stuff that like trying to help you get out of debt and things like that. Like, you just find yourself buying into something that's just as bad, if not worse, trying to alleviate another problem. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right, Sally Mae. Sally, whoops, I don't know her.
SPEAKER_05Sally May have been whispering in my ears for a long time, and I I never I never did it. Sally, come on, you know you know that girl, you about to finish the application. You know you want, you know, you want to get some love. You're not gonna help you. You're not gonna help you.
SPEAKER_03So I'm the only bitch that cares about you.
SPEAKER_01So to kind of like circle back to the whole um police officer arc, how did you all feel about that big reveal that um before he died?
SPEAKER_00You know, here's my thing. Like, so I think the arc was really interesting as it went along. And now, like, oh, he's, you know, really like we're solid in here. Why can't I help me like get through this? And, you know, he's doing um, you know, I thought it was super interesting, and I thought it was a really good progression overall. But then you find out, oh, this is his brother running the squid game, you know, or is the front man for the squid game, and you know, officer gets killed and it goes nowhere. Like, it's yeah, that was the thing for me. I was like, this was a really interesting arc, and it just kind of went nowhere in the end, and then it didn't come up again after that.
SPEAKER_06Very black last year. Yeah, part two.
SPEAKER_04Like, I was like, I feel like he got in. Like, you you know, you know, okay, so like even if you go back into as episode six when we were talking about it, like, did you realize you never saw the old man get shot?
SPEAKER_05Like, you never saw him get shot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like I was watching some, I was watching some breakdown videos of like a panout, and you like you when you see all the other black bodies after the game is over in episode six, you see all the bodies in those particular areas, but the area where the old man got shot, like there was nobody in there, like you didn't see anything, right?
SPEAKER_04And then, like, with him, like, you know, to confirm his death, you would have missed saw him like looking over the water or something, like seeing that he was shot. Like, I just feel like there's more to that. I originally thought his brother was you remember the guy in the um red light, green light, they had kind of had the same haircut, and he was there with his boy.
SPEAKER_05Like, I first I thought that was his brother because I was like, Oh, okay, maybe. And then the and then the little small room, I was like, Oh, that seems like that might be his room. I don't know. We trying to find anybody as his brother. That's the one like that was that we need to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_01Because he was going through so much to find the new brother.
SPEAKER_03I was like, damn, I'm sorry your brother did, no.
SPEAKER_01Like, bro, you follow a whole like whole convoy of like minivans to a fucking barge to hide under one of them and sneak into the damn car, play sleep.
SPEAKER_06Well, I think so. With this this arc, I think um, I think there was like, yes, we follow, we follow him, you know, doing his, you know, spy games or whatever, but I think it was it was like a whole nother um preview to what I hope will be in a second season.
SPEAKER_05Um, but basically the lives of um the the people who are can conducting the games, like everybody in suits or whatever. Um, but they they don't they don't also they also don't seem like they're there, you know, because they want to be there. Like, you know, like they're there for a reason too, but we don't know what it is yet. Like somebody pulled them into these these games, um, and now they're conducting them. But why are they conducting them? Like your boy, that the the one boy who who took his mask off, he was young as fuck. He was young and shit. And and the guy, the guy said, you know, the square said, you know what happens when you reveal yourself, like, and he shot that man. Like, so it to me, there's there's a whole lot that we haven't have yet to see yet. If hopefully we'll see it, but there seems like there's there's more of a story behind them as well. Um not just the participants, but the people who are you know the the squares, circles, and triangles, and the the hierarchy as well. The interesting hierarchy, like I think the the is it the triangle is the highest or something like that?
SPEAKER_01It was like the triangle or the square. No, wait, it was the square because there was only one square, yeah.
SPEAKER_05It was the square, yeah.
SPEAKER_01There was only one square, yeah.
SPEAKER_05The hierarchy, but yeah, they were all very young. Well, I well, from what we saw, it was like a kid. It was a kid. That boy was uh he was a little baby, and you could just tell by his face. He just he wasn't he didn't look like a maniacal, you know. He didn't look, he didn't look like somebody that was like, Yeah, I love blood.
SPEAKER_01He honestly looked dead inside, like he looked like he had nothing on, but he looked numb, yes.
SPEAKER_06I think he took his mask off because of that, like he was over it.
SPEAKER_05He's like, Look, I I don't want to do this anymore. And and the dude said, you know what happens if you reveal yourself. So he he he willingly took his mask off and and died. That's what I was wondering too. Did he really was he ready to say because he just did it so fast, it was just like, oh, you you tired, you you tired of the game. But I like I want to also go more in depth of how long the game has been running because when you saw all those files, I was sitting there like, damn, I'm gonna get fucked in.
SPEAKER_01But remember, like, uh, you know, and that's a good segue into like the kind of climax of the series, like when we get, you know, get into those last three episodes, you know. I guess kind of backtrack before we get there, there. Um, kind of backtracking uh to the the bridge game, which was one of the most interesting because to me, because there was a there was uh there was a person there the whole time who could have made that so easy for everyone. He could have been the first one to go, especially after he learned about everything. And when they found out, this is like, oh yeah, I know I used to work in a glass factory. Like I can I can tell the difference. It's just like give me a second to look at them and I can tell. It's like and I was like, Well, why didn't you go before? It's like everyone here has been trying to kill me the entire time. Like, I my my life has been on the chopping block since since day one, and yet somehow y'all want me to use my use use my expertise to to help people who are actively trying to kill and manipulate me.
SPEAKER_05No, but I think those rich people would have ended up doing the same thing because to them him knowing the difference like just soiled the game for them. Yeah, he would have ended up turning the lights off. And if you figure if they did that in the beginning, they all would have been fucked. Yeah, because you saw that it was kind of like um it it was it was not scripted when because the people are like oh shit, you can tell the glass, no turn lights off. Like, oh shit, that's we got we gotta we gotta nigga that wants some glass. No, no, no, no, no. We don't try to have these niggas alive, turn it off, and you know, and I was like, Oh, yeah, everybody's supposed to die. I'm so sorry. And um, it just sucked. Well, you know, like like like when said, you know, if they knew that there was somebody with that you're never supposed to have someone that has a one-up on people, that's not a part of the game that you know. So if you have have like an ace, they're gonna take it away from you. So the game was rigged from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_01But it's weird because they had a file for him.
SPEAKER_05Uh maybe he but that's true, but maybe they didn't have maybe they didn't even think about it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, you know, you know, they said they overlooked it, yeah. Yeah, it's not a file for him, it's not like a resume. They probably didn't just pay attention. Oh, he was a glassmaker, let's not do this game, like you know, it's like a question suppose.
SPEAKER_05So, how did you all feel that all of the millionaires in there were white? I thought it was I thought it was very, very appropriate. I really did.
SPEAKER_01It was very apropos. I was like, not surprised. Not surprised.
SPEAKER_06I was like, me, of course, of course, of course, these colonizing athletics would be the ones up in here.
SPEAKER_01Like, there was literally like all these white men, one Japanese manager and the one and Ilnam, the one Korean guy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, it was very appropriate, and I I liked that via the director knew to do that shit too on purpose. Like you know, he did that shit on purpose. And it was great, it was great. It um it spoke volumes. Um, I loved how with Ali um people are now starting to now starting to look at the immigration in Korea and how unfair it is. I've been seeing a lot of articles about that as well. It kind of gave light uh because that is a real thing with you know a lot of the foreigners coming into Korea and how hard it is to kind of integrate in culture. Even when I was looking at possibly uh going to Korea, and um, I was looking at a lot of videos on YouTube about this black woman who moved to Korea and integrating into Korea, and she said it took her 10 years to get her citizenship because they will always see you as a foreigner if you're not Korean. And she knew the language, she married a Korean guy, she she did everything. She even kind of did the try to do like even the makeup to kind of match the culture. Um, because American makeup and Korean makeup is more about subtle subtleties in Korea versus America, we're kind of all about more dramatic. So she really integrated into Korean culture, and they're like, they still see me as a fucking farter. And it took her like 10 years to get her citizenship. So it's been is very interesting um seeing that. And that was something that she's somebody I've been watching when I was I dated a Korean guy. So it is very interesting seeing everything develop, seeing how there are a lot of real things going on, and it kind of is opening eyes to people um about real life. So Ali's character, them picking white people, the the director knew what he was doing, and I really appreciate that because a lot of directors sometimes don't even have the tact or the genius to kind of put that in there for people to see.
SPEAKER_01I ooh, that's that's a whole extra layer that I never considered. Like I thought it was interesting that Ali was there, you know, to have this kind of like one Pakistani guy there, but it stood out to me, but it didn't. I thought it was interesting that Ali was there because he was like the only like non-Korean Asian person there. And then, well, no, Pakistani's not Asian, excuse me. Like he was like the only non-Korean person there and all of this. And I thought it was weird and interesting, but I didn't think enough of it to draw that comparison between um like actual immigration problems that they're having. I know they I know that they use the the the young lady with the um little brother to like draw that you know that North Korean, South Korean um kind of refuge narrative, you know, because she was trying to get her parents over after she and her little brother were able to get there safely. But yeah, no, that's that's interesting. I want to look more into that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you know, Korea is a homogenous country. Um, so foreigners probably make up maybe 5% at most um in Korea. So majority of people there are Korean, you know what I'm saying? So it's it's very hard to integrate into a culture where literally majority of everybody there is Korean, speaks Korean, you know what I'm saying? So you have to integrate into the culture, and also like everywhere else, there is shadism, even if you're Korean. So, you know what I'm saying? There's a lot of layers to that. So, of course, if you have shadism and you're Korean, and then you have a foreigner who's not at all Korean, there is gonna be a lot of layers to that, even if you integrate into the society. The same shit here, you know what I'm saying? I mean, of course, America is a melting pot, but we haven't our own issues uh here, you know, and we're not homogenous, so you can just imagine um, you know, going out of the United States and seeing that a lot of places that are a homogenous country, they're probably going through the same shit.
SPEAKER_01So, about the second to last episode. So, after at the end of this uh glass episode, Songwu does some more fuck shit because he kills Odoo, who can actually see the glass after they turn the lights off, and then uses that opportunity for everyone to you know get across safely. And then I for some reason, I don't know why they do it, but they explode all of the glass that's on the thing. I don't know if it's because the timer ran out, and that's what was gonna happen already anyway. But our girl, she gets hit with that shroud of glass in her side, and we don't find out until later on. And immediately afterwards, um, they they have their nice little dinner or whatever, and we see that you know, after dinner's over, they're at the three corners of this huge ass room. Um, Yang goes over to check on her because he notices that she didn't really eat anything. Um, he notices that you know she looks kind of flushed, she doesn't look, doesn't look too hot, and he finds out that she has the short in her. And Songwu, being the nigga that he is, uh murders her. Um Mercy kill. Huh? Mercy kill. I mean was it though?
SPEAKER_05That's what I was telling between. Was that a mercy kill? Because she was bleeding internally and out, so she wasn't gonna live. She wasn't gonna, she wasn't, she would have either died then or she would have died at that game.
SPEAKER_06So I think it would have been a mercy kill if it was somebody who killed her that cared about her. Yeah, that's not it, yeah. He did not give a fuck about anybody.
SPEAKER_07So I will say this, I will say this. I I understand that he wasn't shit, but in this particular aspect, this is the one time I could honestly say that there was an opportunity, but it was also a mercy kill. I'm not gonna deny that. There was this was an opportunity. The reason being is because, in one sense, wasn't did he really give a shit? Like, like deeply give a fuck? No, no, he didn't. He cared enough because he could do what his boy couldn't do, because the other day, she wasn't gonna make the next, she would make the next game and just be in the way anyway, or they would have to go through doing another game just for them to get to this last game. So in the so and then she would have died somewhere in the area anyway. So might as well get her out of the way now. I understood that because it wasn't like it's not like the same scenario where they had that war in the middle of the bunk beds earlier in the season. It wasn't like that where it's like niggas just went off and started killing just to be like, oh, we get more money. Like, you know, it's she was already gonna die, she was already on death row, she was like shallow breathing, breathe, bleeding everywhere, glass still sticking out of her. She couldn't eat, she could barely walk.
SPEAKER_04Oh, she took the glass out.
SPEAKER_07Oh, she didn't know.
SPEAKER_04She took the glass out in the bathroom and caused her to bleed more.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, okay. So, yeah, so she opened the wound up even more.
SPEAKER_06So, either way, so why does she try to stab her in the throat like that? All nasty, like terrible like that.
SPEAKER_07Like, fuck I thought I think now that was that was the part that I yeah, that was why I didn't pay too much attention.
SPEAKER_05How I thought he slid I think he slit her throat because you saw it go.
SPEAKER_07He stabbed now, he stabbed himself in the throat. He stabbed himself in the main artery because that's the quickest way to bleed out, but he slit her throat because that's another quick way to slip.
SPEAKER_06I had to go back to because I'm I would have to go back.
SPEAKER_01I can't I'm I'm limited. I can't believe that that was a mercy killing, mostly because it was him. And I I I want I understand like because of what time it was, I still it was still opportunistic.
SPEAKER_07I'm not denying that. Like, let me get that out there. It was still opportunistic. But this was the one time close to the mercy kill he got, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I think that like his opportunism like supersedes what any any degree of mercy he could have had. Like, if anything, like when I remember because you remember in the in the final episode when um he and Gihon were playing Squid Game, um, you know, he was he Gihon was like, Well, why the fuck did you do that? He's like, I knew you would have, you know, tried to do anything that you could have done to try and save her. I was like, Oh, so you weren't you did it because you knew that Gihon would have tried to like keep her alive in any way that he could, and you were just like, nah, fuck this bitch, she needs to die.
SPEAKER_07So that that's partly why at the end of the day, everybody had to die anyway, right? And I'm like, that's part, but like everybody had to die anyway. Like, there was no, like, like it wasn't. I understood when he said that because the sheer fact that you would have wasted all your energy and resources on making on having this one person live who wasn't gonna make it, she was a lost cause, right? And I knew she wasn't gonna make it now. Not only that, now I could take the opportunity to just while you're trying to keep her alive, kill both of you, and then go on and win this money. He wanted it to just be down to the two of them because at the end of the day, she at this point was a hindrance, she wasn't gonna win.
SPEAKER_05Like, and I think he wouldn't, he wasn't, he wouldn't have been it if, like, you know, they actually gave you medical attention. They weren't gonna come in and come in and no, they weren't.
SPEAKER_01And I knew they weren't when he was like screening for help. He was like, he wasn't gonna, they weren't gonna come help her.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's when they came in, they bought the box. That's what they did. They bought the box, it was like it's a rap.
SPEAKER_07That's what I'm saying. I understand he's an opportunity, he's an opportunistic as fuck, but he's also a realist. Like it's like like that was a realist moment. It's like, look, I couldn't, I could just let you try to save her and then kill the both of you when you are when you ain't looking. He could have done the eight shit thing, the true eight shit thing, and used her as a decoy. He's like, nah, I want to just be between the two of us. Because even down to, and I didn't really get it until he until the last moment for him when he could have easily used this opportunity to just slip this man's throat and call this ass over to the line. Instead, he was like, Nah, I'm gonna use this opportunity to give you, my friend, this win and to end all my trouble. Like, this is the win, like in his mind, this was the win-win. Killing himself and his friend getting this money was the win-win scenario for him. Yes, he was opportunistic, but he like in all the opportunistic and all the eight shit, there is some moments of humanity there. And it just said that his moments of humanity involved killing or killing himself.
SPEAKER_06That nigga should have killed himself in the bathtub and left everybody else.
SPEAKER_07In the one part, that's the exact he thought about it, and he just but that was a chicken moment. That was him chicken out.
SPEAKER_06Don't play that was him that was him chicken it out, and then and then be like, Oh, I'm a I'ma I'm a I'ma you know, be a good person and kill my thought for my friends, so we can fuck you.
SPEAKER_07Well, once again, you gotta look at this way was the main dude gonna leave, they would have both died, they would have both got capped. Bow bow next contestants, it would have done nobody would have got the money.
SPEAKER_01Well, no, because like they they were they they when Gion did try to like end the game for real for real, nobody would have won, and they wouldn't have kept that, they would no, they would have both they both would because according to their contract, they both would have needed to agree to end the game, but that didn't happen, that didn't end up happening with um Song Wu because Song Wu, you know, was unresponsive, and you know, he ended up killing himself, so he didn't get a chance to opt out, or he didn't try to opt out, he just went ahead and like offed himself. Um, they both could have they could both could have made it out alive.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, they could have, but you gotta look at it this way exactly. You gotta look at it this way, and I guess we're the fucking fuck.
SPEAKER_04I just watched all these people die around me, and like his mind was like, we just watched all these people die around us, we committed murder pretty much, even if it wasn't by our own hands, and then we're gonna walk out of here with worse mom because now I'm mental. Yeah, exactly. So now we're C C S G on top of me having miles and miles of debt, and my debt collectors trying to take my organs. I'm gonna die on the streets.
SPEAKER_07And I don't have the money now to buy the psychological help that I need at this contest. Let me read, I'm gonna leave this contest with nobody and more issues than I walk in with.
SPEAKER_04Um I killed an old man, you killed uh a guy that was helping you and thought you was his friend, like it was too much psychological damage for them to both walk out with nobody. And you see it in his life, he looked at the main dude like you wanna wipe people.
SPEAKER_07Like you suppose the slide and get this money, it's over. What are you talking about? Like, fuck it, hey, goodbye, bro. Like in movies. Even when I was looking at the main character, I was like, I get it. Y'all went through a lot, and I understand you want to do the moral thing. But at this point, with everything else you've done and gone through, and you the you're the winner, and you all of a sudden want to have a moral confidence.
SPEAKER_05And don't forget one thing about that scene that got me with the main character was you forgotten the honeycomb game. This nigga pretty much tried to kill your ass because he tells you what to pick. So let's say you didn't fuck up on that umbrella.
SPEAKER_04Guess who would have been bang bang? You. So you wouldn't even make it this far had you not come up with the thought of licking it, you know what I'm saying? So, like, you might as well have just gave it out.
SPEAKER_07And let's also look at the fact that it's kind of disrespectful that you just went through this whole contest, lost all these friends, and now you want to turn around and be like, we can't collect this money because it's morally wrong. Bitch, get your ass across that line and get this money. That's fucked up with everybody else. It died for you.
SPEAKER_01It's like you're collectively as a as a literal ethics professor, you're trying to put me through so much right now. But Siona, you had something you were you were trying to say earlier.
SPEAKER_05Um yes. So as ancient as that character is, um, I think he was just incredibly selfish versus the the the gangster nigga who was actually evil. As fuck.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And when he died, it was poetic. Yeah, it was poetic. And I think we we we put a lot on the ain't shit nigga, the business guy, because he was a part of such a good crew. Um, and I think because we inherently think we would never do that to our friends, but I don't think we give enough heat to the gangster guy. And it's just it's just something that I've noticed. I think because we feel like it's such a betrayal of friendship, but the actual evil nigga that'll kill everybody is because he picked his fun is the gangster guy. And it's just something that I've I've I've seen. I think we we kind of give a pass to an evil person. Because we're like, oh, he's evil, he's done doing evil shit. But once it's someone who we're like, oh my god, it's betrayal. It's like we give more, I don't know. I feel like we give more of like a a backlash to him. Of course, again, it's not really, it's not really fending for him at all, but it's something I've I've kind of noticed in general that we that we collectively, people in general, do because the gangster guy was out here killing everyone and he didn't give a fuck. And he just was and he really enjoyed it at the at the you know what I'm saying? Whereas you can see the business guy did not enjoy this shit at all. It was just like the fuck am I supposed to like I need to I need to survive because of selfishness and greed. Whereas you had another person who really was out here, he just he just had a great time killing people and he it was like a high to him. So it was just it's just something interesting that I've noticed. I think we we really feel a guttural instinct when it comes to betrayal versus someone who inherently loves killing. We just kind of gave it past.
SPEAKER_06Go ahead, go ahead. I would say because betrayal, um with betrayal, it's like you you had faith in this person. You you gave you gave something like something in your your being uh gave this person uh like hope or or you know, they gave you a sense of something that possibly good in them for you to feel betrayed or any or or for you to see them betray other people who you know care about them, like genuinely have this sense of care and feeling for them.
SPEAKER_05And uh Gihan clearly, um even though it might have been you know misguided or whatever, but um he he feel he felt like this man was his his childhood friend and he had and he's and he genuinely cared about him. And we see uh some woo time and time again from the beginning uh betray this man because he he genuinely didn't really uh like I don't know if he didn't give a fuck, but from what we saw, he didn't give a fuck. So so so um to see that. Oh yes, he was consistent.
SPEAKER_06But to see him, to see him do that to him, I I think that's why people are so upset with this man. Like that person uh genuinely like cared for you. But and then we see this gangster ass nigga who was trash from the game, you like, oh I don't I don't know this man, don't nobody trust this man. This this man has been killing people from day one, he been trash from day one. Um, don't nobody trust this man. So he he didn't he didn't have any relationships where with anybody for us to feel so upset that he was killing niggas because that was already what he was doing before he got there.
SPEAKER_05So let's not forget the the moment when um the main character had that speech with the gangster nigga that had him shook for the rest of the night. Like you sitting around with a bunch of people that could easily just mock you. Yes, yes, so like that gangster nigga was only gangster because he had people that he could manipulate.
SPEAKER_01The minute he was isolated or up against crazy chick, he folded like what tissue right so about the finale, how do how do we feel about the final reveal of ill of who Il Nama is when it happened?
SPEAKER_05Not surprised, nigga was acting sus from fucking episode one. Number one, he's number one as well. Yeah, that alone is suspect as fuck. Like, why is he number one? His old ass. What the fuck going on here? And so that for me was hot, yeah. It was very sus. And when the excitement, Miss Skittle said the excitement, that was sus as hell, too. Hey, everybody's done. I'm cool now, he running.
SPEAKER_03I said that when they were doing the fucking uh red light, green light, and when you show us top, he's like, Jesus.
SPEAKER_07It's like, oh my god, what the usefulness is this man?
SPEAKER_05So so like I was looking at a um YouTube, like how you were the like McCoy about the different things you missed. So apparently in the tug of war game, he was the only one not locked to the rope. Oh yeah, everybody else had a lock that locked them in, but he was the only one not locked.
SPEAKER_04So if the rope went over, he wasn't gone. Interesting.
SPEAKER_05Oh, see, now I gotta watch that. That's interesting.
SPEAKER_06It was like little signatures that we missed. Oh what?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, like like I saw that I was like, so yeah, like like that old man. I I bitch that he was shifty, but maybe maybe I don't trust too many old people, he just looks shifty.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_05But you got the most experience out of everybody right now on this planet because everybody else is younger than you. You you can fuck me over in an instant because you you are seasoned. Uh that took a war game before older listeners, we can my older listeners.
SPEAKER_07I don't trust y'all to share. I'm just gonna be honest. We're gonna have that out.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_04He was still trying to play a game.
SPEAKER_01But but I I I but it was it was interesting for me because it was like one, I I because I was I remained completely ignorant of it like the entire time. I was like, that was shifty, you know, that was weird, but okay. Um I was like, okay, you know, that was strange, but I'm gonna keep moving. I was used, I was my my my I was uncharacteristically unsuspicious. Um, and so by the time I found out, I was like, oh my shit, no, this I thought this nigga was dead, and um like I was really blown. And then when he explained what why he did it, why he started the Squid Games, I was like, young, excuse me, you because you because you were bored, you were bored.
SPEAKER_05You were bored, you were bored, French people.
SPEAKER_03Most people do that.
SPEAKER_00Doctor, you're about to do.
SPEAKER_03Oh, sorry.
SPEAKER_00No, yeah, like that's see, that's what got me. Because, you know, the whole him being, you know, this, you know, behind it all all along. Like, I didn't think it at first. I think episode six was the one where I really started thinking, okay, this is weird, you know, kind of like um Don D was saying, like, oh, he's fucking with them. Like, it's you know, he's like, Oh, here's my marble, and I'll have one more, and like it's it's just too intentional. But like, I think I was it was still like kind of an interesting, a really interesting reveal to me. But the reasoning was just like, really? Because you're bored, because you just wanted to have some fun, like you couldn't have, you know, bought a bunch of you know, sex or something like that. Like, there are always other ways. Like, this is elaborate, like, this is a lot to go through for one like quick thrill. Like, I just it's like, oh, this this feels dumb to me. Like, it does, but it's very realistic.
SPEAKER_05Again, the shit been realistic from jump. Rich people have been playing these games because they fucking bored. They're like, why not? But you know what?
SPEAKER_01I thought money, but I think that there's some the more interesting part there um was the the parallel that they drew between Gion and Ilnam in the series in that episode. Because it was like, why do you doing this to these people? It was like, well, you know, you like horse racing, right? For us, y'all are the horses. And because in like my it's interesting because like on literally uh uh on Tuesday, like the the next lecture in my ethics class is on you know the moral consideration of animals. Um it's like we we we are positioned in that same way, like we don't consider things that are less powerful than we are, or less intelligent than we are, or have less resources than we are to be morally worth the same amount that we are. So we kind of do with them whatever we please and don't think twice about it. So for for him to say that, it was like, well, for in the same way that for normal, you know, human animals, non-human animals are you know just fodder to us for people in the upper echelon, uh upper echelon, echelon, excuse me, uh, who have all of this you know exorbitant wealth and power, who are basically above you know the the normal problems of everyday life. Yeah, nor people, normal people or regular people, um we are the horses because at a certain point they have the resources and the power to exist above us in some way, in the same way that we have the resources and the power to exist in some way, shape, or form above other like non-human animals. And so it kind of draws an interesting parallel but not just on, you know, not simply on like this idea of like human and animal relationships, but just this relationship between what it looks like to genuinely have power within nature in some way, shape, or form, and how that extends into society and how we continue to perpetuate a lot of those different ideals. And it becomes egregious when it's like human-on-human violence in some way, shape, or form, like you know, like rich humans, you know, exploiting poorer humans. But it's it's it's it's like it be it, I think it tries to reveal this kind of hypocrisy we have about the value of life and how it's only really important when it's you know related to human life. Because now we have a conversation about what value does human life actually hold in the face of a human life that has literally and figuratively more value and more worth than other human lives. Oh, sorry, I didn't expect the silence after that.
SPEAKER_05It makes you think, it makes you think, you know, like I always talk about um, you know, I I love I love chicken. I'm a meat eater. And so, and then I I compare myself to attack on Titan, you know, pineapple stuff. Well, is it really? Um, so I was another episode. So um, so you know I would I would be eating food and I'm like, man, you know, this kind of reminds me of a tack on Titan. You know, what if like you know, little chickens are like daddy name, and you know, and I'm the Titan, and I'm like, damn, that's really fucked up. And I ate my chicken, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01But it's just kind of like Damn, Jimmy B was just like murdering the Walmart of spiders earlier.
SPEAKER_05But really, like it's all about perspective, you know. If you put yourself in that spider shoes or that that centipede, a centipede is like, nigga, I didn't even know you was here. I didn't want to be here, you know what I'm saying? Like, shit, the lights on, let me scurry away. And they're trying to run away and you try to kill them. You know what I'm saying? And what if we were that centipede? I don't know, it's just very interesting. Like you putting yourself in other person's shoes. Of course, it's like it's morally wrong for you know, for for the the squid game, but y'all niggas do the same shit to horses, dog fights, you know what I'm saying? It's the same thing, it's just that it's not you. You know what I'm saying? You're not the one going through it, so you could you don't put value or care about it as much. But when it's you're like the same species, then it's it's it's it's heresy or it's something horrible, uh, you know, and it's just very interesting. But yeah, I thought I I thought it was very consistent and very real. You know, they're doing the same shit that people do anyway anyway. It's just that what they're betting on is just us. And so people do it all the time. That with this pandemic theater, they could have been but uh, you know, what you're saying. People doing serious shit to humans all the time. That's it. I mean, this is squid game ain't nothing different from real life, you know, and I think that's why so many people gravitated to it. It's nothing fantastical with powers and you know, and in multiple dimensions, you know, and not saying that those things can't ever happen or whatever, but it's just something that is is more tangible in the now. And I think that's why so many people gravitated to Squid Game because it's some shit that's probably going on right now in the dark web. You know, like they probably got niggas in undisclosed situations doing the same shit. And um, it's it's it's very interesting and terrifying because it's like it's almost has like a moral, like you don't want to be in this situation, nigga, because it's right around the corner, you know what I'm saying? So it's just it's yeah, it's interesting. It's interesting, scarifying, uh terrifying, um, you know, but very real. It's a very real concept that can happen and it's probably happening now. Oh, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01No, go ahead.
SPEAKER_05I was gonna say, if y'all was in debt, would y'all go play Squid Games? Um, it depends on the situation. Okay, but you can't know, you wouldn't know what you know now. Um I wouldn't I would I would definitely because desperation if if I would play the game if someone I love or or a group of people I love lives depended on it, I would play the game. Um, I would even if I know because either way, I'd have to weigh out the situation. If I know I'm gonna die by a loan shark's hands, or I have an opportunity to kind of bet myself to possibly win a lot of money, I probably would I probably would play the game because either way, it's death, so you could choose how you're gonna die, so to speak, because the main character is after is gonna get murdered.
SPEAKER_06I will play my monthly payment, okay? That payment plan will be together corporation that we can do what we gotta do because I'm not but you were so traumatized you couldn't work, so what was you gonna do? What what I won't be participating if I ever see the um the theory uh of of the PlayStation on a card somewhere, I don't want to see it. I don't know, no, I'm good. I'm good on that. I'm not playing no games for money, dog.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I would sooner just go live off the grid somewhere. I would like I would sooner drop out of society altogether and go like live in the woods or escape to another country with the money that I could I did have and start literally all the way over.
SPEAKER_05It again, it depends on the situation. A lot of a lot of these people were there because their families were involved, you know. I'm saying, and this it's hard to say what we will and won't do, but when you're desperate, people do ridiculous, stupid shit in desperation. When a life, I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. So I mean it's so easy. Like, even if there's a if there's an apocalypse, we're saying I would never eat no damn spider. I'm not eating no spider, I'm not eating. Listen, nigga, if there's no fucking food, you better eat that goddamn spider. This right here.
SPEAKER_04No, don't don't even go down the apocalypse.
SPEAKER_01She said I will I will go three bar before that day comes.
SPEAKER_06I will become the goddess of vegetables, okay?
SPEAKER_03Like I will be vegan real quick, right?
SPEAKER_05Like the vegetables. If it was a nuclear apocalyptic look, look, look, stop trying to take stuff away from me.
SPEAKER_01Listen, the body will evolve, it will learn.
SPEAKER_05Stop trying to take stuff away from me. Listen, I'm eating the damn spiders. I'm telling you, and I don't even like spiders. I'ma eat it, I'm gonna cook it, I'm gonna jerk, I'm gonna jerk season it. I'm gonna put some garlic in Maggie Cube to make it. It might be though. That might be the one thing that's gonna be. No, listen, when there when there is an apocalypse, nobody's gonna go to the season aisle and pick up seasonings. You feel me? That's not what they think of. I'm gonna get a bag with some pepper. You feel me? I'm gonna put all the seasonings in that bitch so at least we could be eating some kind of good. I'm gonna tell you to grab the obey while you're in there. I'm gonna grab the obey. What seasoning do you want? I'm gonna put some honey. Listen, I'm gonna listen, you come to me, I'm gonna be bargaining for some seasonings.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so before y'all like start acting like this is like the road or some shit, like the doctor, what were you about to say earlier?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, to follow up, but you know, when um Sonne brought up the what y'all being desperate. Like, I think that's something that Squid Game drives home repeatedly. And one of the biggest things is when they all got to leave. You know, they're all voted out, they all were able to walk away. Like, hey, you're safe, you're good, you can go. And what is it? I think they said 97% of them came back. You know, it's what they feel like they had to do because they were that desperate. You know, they a lot of them on the inside uh were talking about how, oh well, you know, what's the difference? Us dogging here versus me like getting murdered out there because I owe so many debts. So they really, you know, it really wasn't that different for them. So I definitely, you know, see that, or I don't really, you know, I think they really did a good job of driving home that point about you know, these are people who are super desperate and who for whom the alternative is not much different than getting murdered in a sadistic game, you know.
SPEAKER_01Also, something that um Sion A brought up with that um was really important that like when people's like people's families were at stake, and it showed that like a lot of the characters that they helped us like really get attached to had families, you know, family situations that were at stake. Um, you know, Gian, Sungwu to an extent, um Ali and his family, which you know, I hope they are okay and they are doing whatever and living because the way he sent them off with that money. Whoo! Um, you know, old girl and her um little brother. Uh yeah, like all of them had like the ones, the the main four that I think that we got the opportunity to be really, really attached to, they all had something that they were like they always had, they all had some family situation that they were really trying to get this money for. Now, personally, I don't think Song Wu was like, because we don't know what his intentions or like his motivations were, it's hard to really say that you know he was driven by family. I know he was part he might have been driven more so by guilt because he like put up his mom's shop as like collateral that he didn't have the authority to do so. And so that was fucked up. Um, but yeah, generally speaking, yeah, like people had not just you know uh what the doctor is saying, but like just that aspect of having someone else to do this for um was really a really important point. So um after we go after we get this big reveal with Ilnam, and we you know, we see Gihan uh Gian uh a year later, he has dyed his hair red, got a haircut, new hair, who this.
SPEAKER_05That shit threw me off. He looks horrible as a redhead, by the way.
SPEAKER_01I think I think I think it's more so the hairstyle than the color. Um, because I think that if he like put up in a ponytail, you know, got like a different style that wasn't like, you know, just let me have a regular hairstyle that's just red. It seemed really it seemed like a lot. But um one of the things that we I think because you know, we see him literally about to get on a plane to go visit his daughter and his ex-wife in America. And he on his way there, he sees this, you know, he sees, you know, the recruiter for the Squid Game out again doing the same thing with someone else that we that was happening to him, you know, a year and some change prior. And he tries to stop it. And as he's getting on the as he's getting on the plane, he makes the phone call. They still remember his player number, and he it he immediately stops, stops his trip, turns around.
SPEAKER_05to you know with stay which is the cliffhanger of the the final episode where he's like I'm going to stop this from happening so how did we how did we digest that moment where were we then I hated it yeah I hated it too I did too same I was upset I hated that shit like listen you you you called you spoke to your daughter you know I'm saying you just spoke to your like baby I'm gonna be there she was right on the way this close you're this close like you're this close from not being a fucking horrible father anymore you know I'm saying you have the money a gratuitous amount of the ridiculous amount of money you know I'm saying you are a multi-millionaire and you did all this shit you want to you your daughter doesn't even know that you even have the money to even make shit right like generational money you're about to hop on the plane you just talked to your dog it would have been better if he didn't even talk to his daughter because at least he keep the the bullshit consistent you know what I'm saying but you spoke to your daughter so no matter so basically what you're doing is that the main reason why you got into this game was to help out your daughter and then help out your mom. So now the game has is been an obsession where that your family doesn't even matter anymore. And that for me is a problem. Like what is what is the hierarchy of needs is your daughter right now. And basically you're I'm I took it as a personally I that pissed me off. I demoted his character to almost I didn't like him at all because of that reason. Because I took it as someone who the daughter really was your was your only cheerleader in life that's the only one that was cheering you on. Nigga you gave her you gave her duck bookie instead of a good ass meal that you could have gotten her one it was fried chicken. And she ate that damn Korean food and she was like it's good daddy mommy don't even want me to have this no more like like you owe everything to your daughter and you basically abandon her.
SPEAKER_06You did again and it's from this so I'm hey I'm gonna play devil's advocate because which is ironic because you were the devil this week so um while I do agree and um I did I did feel some type of way I didn't hate him but I definitely felt some type of way because again this is um this was his opportunity to to to one do what the fuck you went to the games for in the first place like to take care of your fucking family.
SPEAKER_05But so devil's advocate I feel like I feel like his thought process was maybe sacrifice one for you know the good of many because if he does stop the games then all of these people don't have to die however often they die or and and one who's who started I mean we know who started it but who's continuing it I'm assuming devil advocate though why the fuck does anybody else matter to you outside of your door that's what I'm saying like because you don't know any of those fucking strangers the conversation of the choice of the many versus the choice of the few yeah that's another sucker sucker do that.
SPEAKER_01First of all don't don't start this because I I have a whole lecture on utilitarianism.
SPEAKER_06But like I mean I I'm I'm completely there with you but some people don't think that way some people think I want to save I want to save many people like I like I went through this and I know what people are going through so I have to save as many people from this incident as I possibly can like that that's like a it's it's almost like a a trauma I mean I mean it is a trauma thing. Like I went through some traumatic shit and I have to save other people from it.
SPEAKER_05I have I like I have to now because I know what they endured I I know what I endured I I know what I saw and and and um again I think it kind of it's kind of a hopefully a segue into what's going on with the people who are conducting the games.
SPEAKER_01Because I think that's the part we didn't get enough information about. We found out about Il Mam and we found out why he started the squid game but he also didn't know anything else about these other people except for that one like old fat was old fat like gross white dude who literally about sexually as Alzheimer got his shit wreck um which was extremely satisfying because I was like it was that's still right it is found out um but yeah no we it's an opportunity for us to you know at least narratively speaking to learn more about the rest of the kind of you know universe surrounding the squid game but on top of that you know like y'all have this like very intense kind of like moral conversation about you know what is more morally has more moral weight not simply to this character but just in general right the the moral weight of his his daughter who for all intents and purposes already is already been estranged from him they moved to an entirely different country and second secondly you know towards the idea that there is this egregious system in place that is going to continue to try and perpetuate itself and even after the person we have seen who has created it has passed, it is still going. And we after having gone through it we know that it is a problem. We know that it is wrong right we we know that there this is not something that should continue and like does that does the moral weight of the amount of the number of lives and the amount of harm that comes from this particular system is is does that outweigh you know the the the moral consideration of this relationship to this daughter and you know there's there's a couple of different you know moral theories at play there and I'm not going to get into them because this is kids not daddy daddies everyday be okay stepdaddy came in he said it's good I was gonna give you money so you can get what your mama need and we go you don't don't talk to us no more I'm gonna see you we ain't gonna see each other that's that's fucked up it is but but but real talk like that that's I think that's one of the larger points of that moment. Like I did not like that moment specifically because it reminded me you know of the and I don't know if everyone's played or played or knows the story at the end of the Last of Us 2 basically where you know Ellie ends up you know actually having a quiet life after this like tale of vengeance that she almost died from and she managed to survive she lost everything for it. Yeah she lost everything she she because she could not get past this vengeance she lost literally everything that everyone sacrificed their sacrificed their lives for so that she could live for and that reminded me that I was reminded of that in this moment that he so many people's lives were sacrificed um he had survived so much she had gone through so much only to come out of this on on top and at the end not in on top in the way that he wanted to because he spiraled into a very deep depression after all of that shit happened and he was he wasn't really able to function until I guess he got that closure from Ilnam in some way shape or form and even after all that you know he got himself back together got you know changed his hair blah blah blah got reestablished a relationship with his daughter was going to go see her et cetera et cetera had better money um he he just he turned right back around and went back into this same system and neglected the very thing that he was fighting for at from from jump and it was very interesting because it was if you parallel how uh Ilnam or you know how everyone talked about you know the human beings being the horses and him being into horse racing it was like going it was you can kind of you know parallel it to him going back to gambling as the particular problem that he had with had in the beginning and forsaking the forsaking his family for this kind of particular addiction. And I'm not saying that you know his moral compass to you know try and stop the squid game in some way is an addiction but it is kind of paralleled with kind of it is an action I'll say that's paralleled with different intent because before he just had an addiction to gambling he couldn't stop doing that and he forsake he forsook his family in the process but now he's actively forsaking his family for something he thinks is morally is morally justified because you know he sees something that's you know morally reprehensible that needs to be stopped. Do I think there's a number of things he could have done instead of just like let me not go see my daughter or before you know going on this little crusade? Absolutely I think there are a lot of other things he could have done. But it's it's a very interesting kind of conversation that we find ourselves kind of in this kind of enigmatic space for just generally because I don't think that collectively we could try and come to some sort of conclusion but I don't think it'd be a this a decisive enough one to determine whether or not you know his decision was justified or even all of the events that transpired throughout this tale were you know in some way shape or form uh you know valid arguments for how he you know found his way to turning around right when he was on the right when he was boarding his plane just to do this. So um this is a fun episode a really interesting conversation about uh morals about uh death about uh our you know our the way we make decisions when it comes to our circumstances the people we care about um so we're gonna end it off here and uh we are going to tell everyone where they can find all of us starting with myself you can find me at the black mcoy on Instagram and you can find me at the black mcoy cosplay on Facebook if you want a game with me on PSN my my psn is tempress g290 um sayone where can they find you sayone cosplay on Facebook saune underscore cosplay on IG Sion A cosplay on TikTok and I think I'll be adding more videos right the doctor on Facebook bomb diggity miss skittles miss skittles tr underscore cosplay on Facebook Instagram and TikTok awesome and you can find all of us at the blurred spectrum on Instagram twitter Facebook and uh you can hit up our mailbag at um the blurred spectrum at umbralstarcade.com uh look out for more stuff that we have coming for you all and uh we will see you all wait what you forgot what forgot yeah you forgot the bracelets man oh my god is zero i'm not gonna lie to y'all it's because like on my end the zoom little thing is shifted around and so like the mood the you was gonna hear after this I know shampoo bracelets where can they find y'all at shampoo bracelets on Instagram and soon once we put up some pictures it'll be blurred creations on Instagram oh my god I don't know what that is that's super mysterious I can't wait to y'all do the thing that's gonna happen next week and we advertise and let people know what's going on yes yes we will do a huge huge announcement next week after the podcast to gear you all up for that brand opening that is happening at the end of this month across his fingers and in a nice discount code to use too manifest and then you can find shammy bee on at well I was like where the hell is he I don't hear his voice no more at shammy on Twitter and then what's your Discord on um you can catch me at Shampoo bracelets on Discord you can catch me at uh um Bruno Colleone on New World you can catch me the fuck that nigga over there if that's anywhere fucking catch me on the highways you can catch me on the highway sometimes just try not to get hit and fucking with electricity oh okay put some context on that because I didn't I mean I didn't know what catching you on the highway was gonna look like that that that's a job don't contain this out here fucking with electricity not that kind of job but it is a job but thanks everyone for joining us today we will see y'all next week adios